[Assisted suicide-The legal perspective]

The article deals with assisted suicide from a German legal perspective, focussing on criminal law and constitutional law and based on this to discuss possibilities for a further regulation. It is shown that assisted suicide is exempt from punishmed under the condition of a fully responsible decision to commit suicid and the final act leading to death is carried out by the suicidal person, which means that other acts of assistance are already punishable under current law. A further component of the considerations is how, independent of a legal regulation, free responsibility should be established and, in particular, how information and counselling about alternatives should be provided against the background of the different needs of people in different life and problem situations. Overall, further legal regulation is viewed critically. Practitioners are called upon to continuously develop recommendations for dealing with suicidal ideation.